I agree with you that an approaching asteroid would in all likelihood concentrate human minds sufficiently to foment international cooperation if it offered the only hope that the lethal object could be deflected (“Fiddling with Words as the World Melts,” December 20, 2008). In the absence of such a conspicuous threat, though, international cooperation is rather unlikely. The pitiful current attempts of the European Union and the United Nations to reach any sort of consensus on climate change is yet another proof that humans would let themselves get boiled just like the proverbial frog if the temperatures would rise only gradually. I thus disagree with you that the most recent scientific report on the rapid shrinking of the Arctic ice comes close enough to an asteroid-type warning. No matter how fast the melting, it strikes me as far from sufficient to foment any sort of concerted action. The old frog would hardly budge without that blessed rocky projectile of yours.